1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the grouping of networked resources and more particularly relates to organizing large numbers of networked resources into manageable groups according to attributes associated with each resource.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer networks have evolved from isolated intranets to a worldwide system of routers, switches, servers, computers, and network devices comprising millions of network devices. A network device is any electronic device capable of communicating over a network with other electronic devices using a communications protocol, for example TCP/IP. Large organizations or enterprises such as banks, insurance companies, and government entities manage internal networks or intranets comprising thousands of network devices.
An enterprise's success depends on the successful management of its network devices. Successful management of network devices allows individuals in distant offices to communicate via email and voice over IP (VoIP) and also allows large enterprise information systems (EIS) to manage data throughout an organization. Unsuccessful management of an organization's resources results in disastrous interruptions in the basic functions of the organization. For example, the failure of a bank's network prevents automated teller machined (ATMs) from dispensing cash to customers and bank tellers from servicing the needs of walk-in bank customers.
An enterprise typically empowers a small department of network administrators with the task of managing its thousands of network devices. Success is measured by the number of hours per year that the network is available to all users of the network. Information technology (IT) management software exists to assist the network administrator in monitoring and managing the routers, switches, hubs, servers, and computers in an enterprise intranet. Typical IT management software packages display the status of individual routers, switches, and servers. For example, an administrator may review the system load experienced by a critical router using an IT management software tool. The tool may display the status of each link connected to the router and the traffic rate over each link. Advanced tools may alert the administrator to specific critical conditions, displaying a router whose utilization level is above 90% of capacity in red while displaying routers operating at 80% of capacity in yellow.
However, these IT management software tools do not provide custom groupings of network devices according to user-selected attributes. For example, an administrator may want to group the network devices running a specific operating system, for example servers running Red Hat® Linux Enterprise Server Version 3.0, and display that group. The administrator may want to define groups of displayed resources according to a dynamically chosen attribute to display a limited group of resources, for example the Linux Enterprise Server Version 3.0 servers in Los Angeles. The administrator may desire to assign specific attributes to particular network devices and group the assigned network devices according to the user-defined attributes. Additionally, the complexity and dynamic nature of the network may be such that an administrator is unaware of the different values for particular resource attributes. In this context, the administrator may desire to create groups based on the different possible values for attribute types. In other words, rather than grouping resources based on a known attribute value for the resource (referred to herein as “resource-centric” grouping), the administrator may desire to group resources based on an attribute type (referred to herein as “attribute-centric” grouping).
Unfortunately, currently available IT management software tools do not provide the ability to creat attribute-centric groupings of devices and to further segment groupings according to user-selected and user-defined attributes.
For the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for an apparatus, system, and method that provides a network administrator with the ability to create attribute-centric groupings of devices and to further segment groupings according to user-selected and user-defined attributes. Also, a need exists for a facility which allows a network administrator to manage individual network devices assigned to manage attribute-centric groupings without having to individually issue commands to each network device. Beneficially such an apparatus, system, and method would allow an IT administrator to monitor and manage more effectively a larger number of network devices.